Bay Bridge Closes Today, New Span to Open for Tuesday Traffic

The bridge is scheduled to close at 8 p.m. Wednesday, with the new, East Span scheduled to open for traffic at 5 a.m. Tuesday, Sep. 3.

The new span was redesigned to be safer after part of the old bridge collapsed during the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989.

The project has been plagued by problems, including recent concerns about safety bolts breaking. Andrew Gordon, of the Bay Bridge Project, says a fix is in place and the problem appears to be isolated to one batch of bolts.

A crew member ascends the single main cable during construction of the new span.(Photo courtesy baybridgeinfo.org)

“Crews are going to be working to connect the new east span of the bay bridge into the toll plaza at the east end and the Yerba Buena tunnel at the east end. There are already physical connections but they need to do some paving and some striping, moving of barrier rails to help control the flow of traffic and install a drainage system by the toll plaza.” - Andrew Gordon, Bay Bridge Project

Gordon says during the closure, BART will be running 24-hours a day and extra ferries will be in service as well to help ease congestion.